Personal and family support worker jobs in reading

Our amazing team at Alana House - PACT are looking for Key Workers to join our Womens Community project.  Full time or part time applicants are welcomed to apply.

Could you make a lasting difference to women facing multiple disadvantages? Our award winning trauma recovery service empowers and enables women to access the support they need.  Our service covers Reading, Berkshire, Oxford City and South Oxfordshire.

Position: Womens Community Project Key Worker

Location: Based in central Reading.  The role requires travel across Berkshire, Oxford City and South Oxfordshire, the post holder must hold a full UK drivers license with access to own transport

Contract: Permanent full time – 37 hours per week Monday to Friday.  Part time hours will also be considered

Salary: Starting salary in the range of £25,734 to £31,453 per annum, depending on skills and experience (pro rata if part time)

Having regard to the nature and context of the work, there is a genuine occupational requirement permitted under the Equality Act 2010 that this post is only available to female applicants.

About the role:

As a Key Worker at Alana House, you will hold a case load of women and be involved in one to one work support work and group based sessions.  Your Key Worker responsibilities will include:

· regularly meet with women to provide dedicated emotional and practical support

· complete initial assessments of risk and need, and provide one-to-one support across rehabilitative pathways

· create and review support plans in collaboration with the woman, and other agencies

· facilitate and deliver group-based support

About you:

As a Key Worker, you’ll bring an in depth knowledge of issues facing women with multiple disadvantages, including those with convictions and those at risk of offending.  You’ll also have significant experience of supporting women with issues such as homelessness, substance misuse, domestic abuse and mental health, preferably within a criminal justice setting.

If this sounds like you then visit our website to apply today to join a collaborative and dedicated team who are part of something truly meaningful. Contact details for an informal discussion about the role can also be found on our website.

Early applications are encouraged as we may close this vacancy on an earlier basis if a successful candidate is found.

Closing date: Midday, Wednesday 14 May 2025

Interview dates: Wednesday 07 and Friday 23 May 2025

Other roles you may have experience of could include: Family Support Worker, Family Key Worker, Womens Support Worker, Womens Key Worker, Domestic Abuse Support Worker, Domestic Abuse Key Worker, Recovery Worker, Assistant Support Worker, Assistant Key Worker, IDVA Independent Domestic Violence Advocate, ISVA Independent Sexual Violence Advocate, Probation Services Officer, etc.

Safeguarding is at the heart of everything we do at PACT. We have robust measures and best practices in place to safeguard and protect the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and we take pride in maintaining outstanding safeguarding standards.

Anyone joining our team is subject to PACT’s safer recruitment pre-appointment enquiries, including a Disclosure Barring Service (DBS). The role description provides information on what our safer recruitment enquiries include and the level of DBS required to work in the role.

All opportunities with PACT are based in the UK.

About Kinship

We are Kinship. The leading kinship care charity in England and Wales. We’re here for kinship carers – friends or family who step up to raise a child when their parents aren’t able to. 

Together, let’s commit to change for kinship families.

About the role

This role will support Kinship to operate as an effective charity by ensuring effective day-to-day operations and seamless delivery of the People function at the charity.

You will bring your People leadership experience, attention to detail and excellent communication skills to the role. You will be structured in your approach to ensure that day-to-day issues are handled while also working to improve processes and systems. You will be credible with senior management and able to articulate and balance the trade-offs of a People leadership role.

You will be able to balance multiple competing priorities and prioritise effectively, A positive mindset is key to being part of the team, as is thinking creatively to problem solve and being empathetic to colleagues. You will be highly motivated by our mission, recognising that excellent internal People processes are essential to allowing others to effectively complete their roles and achieve our mission.

You will be a powerful ambassador for our mission, credible with other HR and CSR professionals working to implement kinship friendly employer policies and processes.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Work with the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and the Executive management team to design, develop and embed a high-quality HR function to support the employee life cycle.

• Responsible for ensuring all policies, procedures, and processes relating to people and culture, work effectively, efficiently and in line with legal requirements.

• Responsible for all People matters, ensuring they are handled fairly and consistently in line with policies and procedures.

• Support and advise line managers on People, EDI and change management activities, including promotions, disciplinary, capability and grievance procedures.

• Organise line manager training to ensure line managers understand their responsibilities and apply policies consistently.

• Responsible for the candidates’ recruitment experience. Ensure candidates receive a consistent and professional recruitment experience.

• Responsible for job descriptions, person specifications, recruitment packs and job adverts.

• Ensure offboarding processes are robust and implemented consistently to safeguard the charity’s assets and to comply with Data Protection rules.

• Lead on the delivery and growth of the ‘Kinship Friendly Employers’ scheme, driving growth in the scheme and the number of bronze, silver and gold partners

• Ensure Kinship role models ‘Kinship Friendly’ employment practices and seek opportunities to share these as examples with other HR professionals.

• Support fundraising efforts with corporate supporters who are ‘Kinship Friendly Employers’

Essential criteria includes:

• HR qualification or significant demonstrable experience.

• Coaching qualification or significant demonstrable experience.

• Demonstrable experience of supporting the development of a high-quality People function within a growing organisation.

• Demonstrable experience working in a changing and flexible organisation.

• Demonstrable problem-solving and conflict resolution abilities.

• Demonstrable knowledge of best practices, employment laws, and regulations.

• Effective communication skills.

• Strong interpersonal skills – a genuine team player able to relate to a wide range of people.

• Ability to work on own initiative and manage own workload.

• Demonstrable experience of EDI principles.

Desirable experience includes:

• Personal experience of kinship care.

• Experience of working in a dynamic and fast-changing workplace.

• Exceptional business-partnering skills

What we’ll offer you 

Kinship offers 30 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part-time) as well as a generous pension scheme. We have an excellent wellbeing offer including the Employee Assistance Programme and clinical supervision. We will invest in your professional development with training and career development opportunities.

Kinship is committed to championing equality, diversity and inclusion.  We believe our work is greatly enhanced by the varied backgrounds, experiences and views represented within our teams.  We aim to create inclusive teams, celebrate differences and encourage everyone to join us and be their true self at work. We therefore encourage applications from anyone who fits our values, whatever their religion or belief, sex, gender identity, race, age, sexuality or disability and are actively seeking candidates that can bring real innovation and commitment to us. 

This is a fantastic time to join a supportive and well-established team within an organisation with rapid growth ambitions. This role will be what you make it and we’re looking for someone to seize this opportunity!

How to apply

Please apply via Charity Job with your CV and a cover letter of no more than 2 pages. Please include your notice period and earliest availability to start in your cover letter.     

• Application deadline:  Thursday 22 May, 9am
• First interview:                 29 May - 2 June
• Second interview:            TBC

Kinship reserves the right to close applications early on receipt of sufficient applications. Apply early!

Location: Home based

Contract: Fixed term until 31 March 2026 – Full time 35hrs per week

Salary: £27,250 gross per annum

Closing Date: 26th May 2025

Interview: Interviews to be held 5th June 2025

Are you looking for a new opportunity?

The Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) is a vibrant and growing charity delivering life changing nautical adventure for young people through the Sea Cadets to give them the best possible head start in life. We also provide personal and professional development opportunities for seafarers with the Marine Society. Working with our staff, cadets, and volunteers, we have built a vision and five-year strategy to take us forward and further improve the astounding contribution already made through our work to the lives of thousands of young people and seafarers, while fully supporting our volunteers who are vital to our success.

We are currently looking for a Growth and Development Worker based in England to join our team. This is an externally funded post which will be focused on opening new provision and supporting existing provision in order to reduce waiting lists within specific funding areas. This is a very varied and rewarding role that requires someone who is self-motivated, organised, creative, tenacious, positive, IT competent and with a real interest in people. You need to be able to coach, empower and inspire our volunteers and cadets, both in person and remotely, to grow the Sea Cadets.

Responsibilities

• Delivering a variety of training sessions on, for example, recruitment of cadets and volunteers
• Developing new growth and recruitment tools and ideas
• Promoting flexible volunteering and the volunteer strategy
• Assisting with running our social media accounts
• Working with and empowering our volunteers to develop plans for growth
• Planning and setting up Juniors Sections in new and existing locations/units
• Delivering assemblies in schools
• Forming part of various working groups with colleagues to develop the tools, resources and processes needed to increase the positive impact of the Growth and Development team.
• Supporting the delivery of funded outreach projects

Requirements

• Previous experience of working with volunteers
• Experience delivering on multiple project plans simultaneously
• Ability to build and maintain excellent relationships with a variety of stakeholders remotely and face-to-face
• Experience delivering workshops and/or training
• Self-motivated and able to manage your time and workload effectively
• Flexible and enthusiastic
• Able to work as a team player with creative ideas and solutions who will empower our volunteers to make a difference to the lives of even more young people across the UK

For further information, please download the Recruitment Pack attached.

Benefits

• Flexible Working hours and a hybrid culture
• Cycle to work scheme and Season Ticket Loan
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Life assurance (4x salary) for those that join the pension
• Private medical insurance
• Pension (employer contribution up to 10%)
• Wellbeing portal and EAP with 121 counselling
• Employee development: We are investing in our employees' development and have an annual calendar of learning and development opportunities, designed to support employees to develop into their roles and stretch them to achieve their full potential.
• National staff conference: All employees come together once a year to reflect on the past year and celebrate success at our offsite staff conference. This is a great opportunity to listen to employees' views, and for employees to network, share information and socialise.

If you are interested in this Growth and Development vacancy, please apply now!

Additional Information

MSSC positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates from all backgrounds. Equity, diversity, and inclusion really matters to us, so we can best serve our beneficiaries from every community. We work to ensure a fair and consistent recruitment process and aim to be a charity where diversity of experience, identity and skills are valued and welcomed. MSSC is an equal opportunities employer.

We recognise our responsibilities to safeguard and protect the young people and vulnerable adults with whom we work. We do all we can to promote their health, safety and wellbeing, and we expect our staff to share this commitment and work in line with safeguarding policy, the MSSC’s values and ethos of inclusivity. We adhere to safer recruitment practices and therefore employment is subject to detailed pre-employment checks for successful candidates, including references and criminal disclosure checks and the completion of a disclosure questionnaire.

All successful applicants are required to attend safeguarding training and undergo a criminal record check.

Are you an experienced domestic abuse professional — or ready to take the next step into a leadership role?

Join our small, dynamic team at FLAG DV as Service Manager, and help empower survivors navigating the family court system with specialist legal and emotional support.

This is an opportunity to blend frontline delivery with strategic leadership. You’ll oversee our Legal Advice Clinic and Court Support Services, hold a small caseload, manage a committed team, and act as our Designated Safeguarding Lead — with support from our Director of Service Development & Engagement and a Deputy DSL.

You’ll be at the heart of a trauma-informed, passionate organisation, playing a pivotal role in shaping our services and ensuring survivors receive the support they need. Whether you already have leadership experience or are ready to step up, we’re looking for someone who’s confident, compassionate, and committed to survivor empowerment.

Research Associate - National Youth Agency

Contract: 12-month Fixed Term Contract (with potential to extend)
Hours: Full-time - 37 hours per week 
Salary: £30,000 – £35,000 per annum, dependent on experience
Remote: This role is 100% homebased with occasional travel for staff residentials and other events.

What we do

As the national body for youth work, the NYA has a dual function. We are the professional statutory and regulatory body (PSRB) responsible for qualifications, quality standards, and safeguarding for youth work and services in England. In line with our charity mission and aims, we also champion youth work through research, advocacy, campaigns, and programmes.

We work in partnership and believe in collaborative leadership, listening to youth workers and the youth work sector so that we can understand their needs and respond to the challenges they face. We are ambitious for youth work and for young people and integrate youth voice and influence across our work

About the Role

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Knowledge Team, working alongside two existing Research Associates and a Data Analyst. 

You will be integral in delivering research, data, and insights that support organisational development and programme delivery across NYA.

We are looking for an experienced mixed-methods researcher with a strong understanding of social research and evaluation approaches. Ideally, you will have experience working in or alongside the youth sector and be confident using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

You’ll need to be flexible, proactive, and a strong communicator, able to explain complex ideas to varied audiences. 

This role is ideal for someone looking to make a tangible difference through evidence-led approaches that shape policy, practice, and impact in youth work.

Key responsibilities for this role will include:

• Designing and delivering research projects using a range of methods including surveys, interviews, and focus groups.
• Supporting the development of the NYA research and data hub, including external research collation and data visualisation.
• Leading on evaluations to meet funder requirements and contribute to NYA’s growing evidence base.
• Analysing data from NYA programmes to support impact measurement.
• Promoting evidence-based practice across NYA and the wider youth sector.
• Communicating findings clearly through reports, briefings, and presentations.
• Managing research projects and collaborating with internal and external partners to deliver on time and to quality.
• Responding to internal and external research enquiries.

The ideal candidate will have experience in social research, familiarity with various research methodologies, and the ability to communicate complex findings to diverse audiences. 

Please refer to our Candidate Pack for more information on the role and the requirements.

Why Work for NYA?

NYA operates as a people-first organisation, prioritising the well-being and needs of its employees.

NYA offers an exceptional flexible working approach which encourages our team to balance professional responsibilities with their personal life.

A remote based team, spread across England, fostering inclusivity and diverse talent. Despite geographical distances between team members, NYA maintains a highly motivated and connected team through the optimisation of digital tools.

NYA is committed to supporting the continual personal and professional development of our team and helping them achieve their ambitions.

We provide 25 days leave plus 8 days, life assurance scheme, 5% employer pension contribution and a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme via Spectrum.life with unlimited specialist support available to all NYA employees.

How to Apply:

Please download our applicant pack to find out more about the role and requirements

To apply, please submit the following via our online application platform by 11:59pm on Monday 12th May 2025:

A detailed CV setting out your career history, with responsibilities and achievements in line with the person specification in the About You section. 

A covering letter (maximum two sides) highlighting your suitability for the role and how you meet the requirements in the

About You section. 

We will request data for our EEDI monitoring purposes, providing this is optional.

Please note: the covering letter is an essential part of the application process and will be assessed as part of your full application. We use AI detector software, so cover letters or CV’s with over 30% AI generated content with be disregarded. We understand that AI tools can offer support to candidates who have learning differences, which is why we will accept applications with some AI assistance. CV’s will not be accepted without a cover letter.

The National Youth Agency is an equal opportunities employer. 

At NYA our inclusive culture means that we embrace individual differences and understand that we need a diverse team to achieve our organisations mission. 

We wish to recruit candidates from all backgrounds to ensure our team reflects the rich diversity of the communities we serve. We encourage applications from anyone regardless of disability, ethnicity, heritage, gender, sexuality, religion, socio-economic background and political beliefs but we particularly welcome applications from global majority candidates and those from other minoritised ethnic groups in the UK as they are currently underrepresented in our team.

Youth Work changes lives

Which is why we’re committed to ensuring that as many young people as possible get to benefit from it. As the national body for youth work in England, the National Youth Agency (NYA) exists to champion its transformative power.  We believe all young people should have the opportunity to benefit from the life-changing impact of extraordinary youth workers and trained volunteers.

We help to grow youth work provision in ways that keep it effective, relevant, safe and engaging, to help millions of young people reach their potential and thrive. We do this by providing guidance, support, advice, training and staff development opportunities for youth workers and youth work organisations. At the heart of everything we do are young people themselves. We work hard to ensure their voices are integrated into all our work, to develop provision that truly meets their needs.

REF-221126

Redthread is a hospital based youth work service, working alongside NHS staff and other professionals in emergency departments.

Our experienced, specialist youth workers engage with and support young people, aiming to reduce serious youth violence. We often meet young people at a moment of change and work with them to find a positive way forward.

We provide long-term, holistic support. We consider every aspect of a young person’s life and build support around them.

Job Description

The Senior Service Manager (SSM) provides strategic oversight of Redthread Services (currently working with 9 hospitals in London and Birmingham) providing line management to ensure high quality delivery that improves outcomes for children and young people and be successful in seeking opportunities for further growth. The SSM will work with the YPF SMT and will take a lead role in implementing our YPF strategy in this area, including taking and making opportunities to grow our services, and supporting new service implementation as need requires.

The role can be home based, but time spent in each of the services alongside travel across the UK will be required in order to support delivery and growth of  services across the Hub.  The ideal candidate will have experience of delivering and managing similar services and the right mix of leadership, passion and energy, and an innovative nature. A proven track record in engaging with positive relationships with commissioners and securing new business is essential. The role will involve promoting, connecting and building services in order to impact the lives of vulnerable young people with complex needs.

Duties and accountabilities are split into two core areas, management and development of Redthread service delivery,  including direct management and coordination ensuring high performance that improves outcomes for children and young peopleand supporting implementation of the YPF growth strategy

• Line management of service managers and operational oversight of service contracts.
• Supporting the implementation of the YPF strategy, including making opportunities for organic and new growth. Work with Business Development and other business partners and engage Commissioners and other funders to develop our delivery models and to bid for services (organic growth and nationally).
• Supporting the implementation of the Clinical Governance policy and responsible for ensuring relevant services adhere to this guidance.
• Contribute to national stakeholder engagement plans and local, geographical influencer plans to promote our hospital based youth work offer and support growth.
• Ensure that staff and volunteers within services are engaged with Redthread’s vision and strategic plan, are motivated and understand their role and contribution to the wider organisation.
• Provide robust management and accountability for service budgets and in building budgets for new services working closely with Redthread’s finance business partner.
• Monitor and ensure that contractual commitments are met and that service performance is maximised; acting promptly to respond to and resolve performance and compliance issues. A core component of the role will be to ensure the confidence of our Commissioners including by assuring the quality of delivery, through Brilliant Basics audit, review, observation and ongoing service development.
• Ensure the provision of high quality reports for Redthread, commissioners and other strategic groups on the work of the services with clear evidence of quantitative and qualitative outputs – particularly signing off service commissioner reports / performance prior to external distribution.
• Ensure that services operate effective multi-agency working processes, such as referral, assessment and review and to ensure a high quality standard of lead professional, meeting chairpersonship and co-ordination from workers.
• Promote and support the participation of service users so that they are appropriately informed, consulted and involved in their own plans and the design and delivery of services.
• Be responsible for ensuring that all service activity is safe for all involved, to include adherence to Redthread’s health and safety policies including safeguarding, accidents, incident and injury reporting, fire safety and risk assessment. Review audit activity within services and work to ensure a consistent approach across services.
• Undertake other duties as required to ensure the effective delivery of the services.

Qualifications

Professional qualification in a relevant discipline such as youth, community or management or demonstrable equivalent experience.

KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge and understanding of relevant current issues and research (including emerging trends youth violence work and associated areas of risk)

EXPERIENCE

• A proven track record of developing and managing projects in the public, private or voluntary sectors.
• Extensive experience of working with young people (11 – 18 years) and their families, identified as vulnerable or as having complex needs preferably within a community setting.
• Demonstrable experience of staff management including recruitment, induction, supervision and support.
• Proven track record in scoping and developing new business activity, including engaging and developing positive relationships with commissioners.
• Experience of preparing bids e.g service model development, articulating delivery within tenders - for significant projects/services and participation in the business development process e.g. responding to tender questions etc
• Experience of working using own initiative to an agreed action plan and effectively monitoring service quality standards and performance.
• Commitment to young people’s participation
• Substantial experience of working in a multi-agency environment and the proven ability to develop effective working relationships with other professionals/organisations.
• Experience of managing services for young people and their families, and empowering them to make positive and informed choices in their lives.
• Experience of developing new contracts and development opportunities with commissioners and partners.
• Experience of project development
• Experience of training / public speaking to a wide range of audiences

SKILLS & ABILITIES

• Proven ability to lead and coach others in their professional development
• Demonstrated ability to manage and monitor budgets (up to the value of £1m p/a), working within organisational financial procedures.
• Ability to lead, motivate and oversee administrative processes.
• Excellent negotiation skills, and an ability to handle sensitive matters with tact and diplomacy.
• Demonstrated ability to incorporate and demonstrate an equal opportunities perspective in all areas of work
• Ability to achieve results and meet deadlines and to motivate and manage staff to do the same.
• Computer literacy including the use of Email, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Strong organisational skills.
• Ability to build and establish effective working relationships at a range of levels, including with commissioners, funders and external influencers.
• Creative, flexible and able to work well with others in a team.
• Honest and reliable.
• Commitment to the organisation and also to their own personal and professional development.
• Commitment to enabling children/young people and their families to participate and achieve their full potential.

Additional information

Hours of work: Full time, 37 hours per week 

Place of Work: Home based with expectation of national travel*

Contract Type: Permanent 

Level of screening: Enhanced DBS

*You will be required to work on a on-call basis (days, evenings, weekends, bank holidays) supporting on-call staff with risk assessments ad decision making.

Catch22 is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff, volunteers and other third parties to share this commitment. Safer recruitment practice will be followed and pre-employment background checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed. The post is subject to an enhanced DBS check.

About Kinship

We are Kinship. The leading kinship care charity in England and Wales. We’re here for kinship carers – friends or family who step up to raise a child when their parents aren’t able to. 

Together, let’s commit to change for kinship families.

About the role

We currently have 80 staff members using Salesforce daily. This role provides technical expertise to the CRM users and wider charity, while also carrying out vital audits, project support and administrative duties.

The role of Junior Salesforce Administrator works together with the rest of the team, managed by the Database Manager, to ensure users and projects are supported efficiently and that our Salesforce instance is effectively maintained and maximised.

Key Responsibilities

• Responding to support tickets from internal stakeholders, performing analysis, information gathering, troubleshooting, and escalating while communicating through our support tickets system. 
• Monitoring on-going processes and correcting/escalating any issues that occur. 
• Managing data and keeping records accurate, up to date and consistent. Performing audits to identify irregularities across the system.
• Building Salesforce reports and dashboards for internal stakeholders.
• Create, edit, and maintain Salesforce list views, objects, fields, record types, page layouts, and users. 
• Deliver and support with training and development of all users including their initial induction, as well as follow up training sessions and clinics.
• Assist with testing new enhancements and add-ons from Salesforce releases and custom internal enhancements.
• Create technical and functional documentation. 
• Creating and connecting Form Assembly forms.
• Additional ad hoc tasks relating to the data management requirements of the platform.
• Comply with any monitoring, evaluation and reporting requirements as part of Kinship’s internal processes, as well as any donor or local authority funding requirements for the services being delivered, including producing quarterly performance reports for local authorities, and other funders and stakeholders as required.
• Proactively use data and insight to develop our programmes and sharing with colleagues to contribute to changing the system for kinship carers.

Essential criteria

• Experience of Salesforce Administration and the Nonprofit Success Pack
• Salesforce administration certificate ADM201 
• A strong commitment to ensuring outcomes and impacts of services are evidenced through high quality data collection.
• The ability to work discreetly and effectively with confidential information; ensuring GDPR principles are observed throughout. 
• Able to use own initiative and manage competing priorities. 
• Excellent written and verbal communications and able to communicate technical information in a clear and simple way.
• Able to liaise with stakeholders at all levels.

Desirable criteria

• Lived experience of kinship care.
• Experience of widely customised Salesforce systems.
• Excellent level of IT literacy and proficiency with Excel including Vlookups.
• Familiar with Salesforce configuration concepts such as Profiles, Sharing Rules, Flows, Validation Rules etc.
• Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving skills, coupled with outstanding attention to detail. 
• You’re a solution focussed team player with a positive, can-do mindset.

What we’ll offer you 

Kinship offers 30 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part-time) as well as a generous pension scheme. We have an excellent wellbeing offer including the Employee Assistance Programme and clinical supervision. We will invest in your professional development with training and career development opportunities.

Kinship is committed to championing equality, diversity and inclusion.  We believe our work is greatly enhanced by the varied backgrounds, experiences and views represented within our teams.  We aim to create inclusive teams, celebrate differences and encourage everyone to join us and be their true self at work. We therefore encourage applications from anyone who fits our values, whatever their religion or belief, sex, gender identity, race, age, sexuality or disability and are actively seeking candidates that can bring real innovation and commitment to us. 

This is a fantastic time to join a supportive and well-established team within an organisation with rapid growth ambitions. This role will be what you make it and we’re looking for someone to seize this opportunity!

How to apply

Please apply via Charity Job with your CV and a cover letter of no more than 2 pages. Please include your notice period and earliest availability to start in your cover letter. The interview process will be single-stage and online, consisting of a set of competency questions and a technical challenge task.          

• Application deadline:  Friday 9 May, 9am
• First interview:  Online – w/c 12 May

Kinship reserves the right to close applications early on receipt of sufficient applications. Apply early! 

About the role

As one of two Regional Programmes Manager, you’ll inspire and lead a team of Senior Programmes Officers and Kinship Family Workers to effectively deliver high quality support services for kinship families across Greater London, the South of England and the Midlands.

You’ll do this by working in close collaboration with local authority teams who have commissioned our services and other funders where appropriate.

You’ll have accountability and ownership for ensuring we deliver impactful services for kinship carers and that we meet targets for our commissioned services. Working collaboratively with our other managers in other services, you’ll ensure we’re delivering high impact programmes.

You’ll ensure your team have real clarity and direction on their role and responsibilities - encouraging curiosity, learning and solutions-focused thinking. As a leader in the organisation, you are a key model for the team.

Your team will deliver the following programmes:

• Kinship Connected – in-person one-to-one support and support groups in the community
• Kinship Reach – remote one-to-one support and virtual support groups
• Kinship Ready – online workshops to prepare new and prospective special guardians for their role, as well as wraparound one-to-one support (in one local authority)

You will also manage a new role of Grants Officer - London, funded by the Aviva Foundation.

As one of our deputy safeguarding leads, you’ll be part of our key safeguarding structure.  This means you’ll take ownership to make sure our people feel confident and well supported to demonstrate best practice and making sure safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

Key responsibilities include:

• Oversee the day-to-day running of programmes, supporting mostly home-based Senior Programmes Workers and Kinship Family Workers to ensure high quality, consistent and impactful programme delivery.

• Meet performance targets as directed.

• Create and keep developing processes and systems which support consistency across all programmes, ensuring good quality documentation and manualisation on Notion.so

• Develop quality assurance frameworks with other service managers and directors.

• Support your team to establish and deliver in-person and virtual peer support groups regionally and generate engagement with kinship carers.

• Line management and supervision of Senior Programmes Workers and Kinship Family Workers as required.

• Actively encourage personal development and support staff to deliver key targets and outcomes and ensure high levels of wellbeing.

• Work with the Director of Services and Digital, Head of Programmes and the Business Development team to develop proposals and present to local authorities to secure commissions.

• Manage the delivery of commissioned contracts through collaborative relationships with local authorities, ensuring targets are met.

• Manage the programmes and services within budget, in accordance with Kinship’s financial procedures and ensure the reporting of progress in line with funder requirements.

• Work actively and positively with other managers within Kinship to ensure sharing of best practice, problem solving, relevant connections and consistency of delivery across England and Wales.

• Act as a deputy safeguarding lead at Kinship

Essential requirements include:

• Substantial experience in managing a regional service or programme with high quality outputs (national experience desirable but not essential).
• Substantial experience of managing, developing and evaluating effective and innovative services for families experiencing crisis and experience in reaching ‘hidden communities’ and a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
• Experience of leading and managing continuous improvement in changing contexts.
• Experience of governance and managing risk on high profile service delivery.
• Experience of ensuring that services are designed and led with user needs at the heart, ensuring that the voices of our kinship carers inform ongoing design and development of our programmes.
• High quality digital and data literacy and using technology to help us to be better in our processes. You’ll have to own Salesforce and be a massive champion for the team. You will be accountable for ensuring they use it well.
• Substantial experience of leading high-performing service teams including managing wellbeing, development and performance.

How to apply

In place of a cover letter, you will be asked to answer the following five questions, alongside providing your CV. Please keep your answers to a maximum of 250 words.

1. Tell us why you’re interested in working for Kinship in this role and what experience you bring that would make you successful? This is an opportunity to tell us about you, your experience and your values.
2. Please give an example where you have managed a successful regional programme or service (this could also be national). Please include scale, key performance indicators and outcome. What made it a success?
3. What makes you a great team manager? Give one example of how you have supported teams and individuals to flourish and one example when you have had to step in to address behaviour or performance issues. (This is an opportunity to share your enthusiasm for supporting others to develop and deliver to a high standard. You can share evidence of how your approach has worked and how you’ve tackled challenges and difficult conversations along the way).
4. Quality assurance and consistency is key to making sure our programmes deliver impact for our kinship carers. This includes ensuring your team are following processes, using our case management system effectively and have the tolls to do their role. Please describe how you would approach this at Kinship using a previous example.
5. In this role you will be a deputy safeguarding lead at Kinship. This is a key role, the lives of kinship carers are incredibly complex.  Give one example of a safeguarding situation that required your response in a previous role. Explain what your rationale and thought process was. How did you hold appropriate boundaries and progress actions to effectively safeguard vulnerable children and adults?

Key Dates

• Application deadline:      Friday 9th May, 10pm
• First interview: Online – Tuesday 6 May
• Second interview: In person (Vauxhall, London) – Tuesday 13 May (travel expenses covered if required)

About Kinship

We are Kinship. The leading kinship care charity in England and Wales. We’re here for kinship carers – friends or family who step up to raise a child when their parents aren’t able to.

We are made by and for our community of kinship carers. Like family, relationships run deep. And we hear their experiences; for too long they have been isolated without the help they need.

We support, advise and inform kinship carers. Connecting them so they feel empowered. Because a child needs the love and warmth of a thriving family.

We develop research, campaigns and policy solutions. Creating positive change across society. Because for kinship families, love alone is not enough.

Through our work we harness frustrations to fuel passion for change. And tough experiences to inspire ideas that transform lives.

And as we see momentum building, we keep using evidence to demonstrate the value of kinship care. Helping kinship carers navigate challenging circumstances. Believing in a child’s potential.

Join us. Together, let’s commit to change for kinship families.